Hi Dale,
Thank you for the wonderful in-depth reply!
In my research I was reading what excellent high-quality units the TWIs are, and ultimately swung me to find one. They certainly in my opinion outstrip the rather disposable off-the-shelf units of today. I would love to find an 8000, but from Google results it looks as though the last one to appear on eBay was in 2015.
That was my understanding, was that the differences were in the resolution between the models. Aside from the WRL-10, 32, and 128 units, which had the on-board data logging. The dead unit I had gotten is the WRL-32. It has an extra circuit board with two jacks on it.
I had found and read about the three compatible wind sensor units on TWIs site. Because no TWI-built sensors are available affordably, the Wind Mark III looked like a good option since it matched the specs of the Texas Electronics wind sensors (which are way out of my price range) and was available, cheap. What I missed stupidly was that the consoles have to be factory configured specifically for the sensor they’re paired with. I thought the consoles were built to work with all three by default. Would changing the interface be something that could be done at home, or would that need to be done by TWI?
Would it be safe to try wiring the Climatronics anemometer in to test? It is a pulse unit as you mentioned. The issue would be the Wind Mark III wind direction, which is a potentiometer, not an optical encoder, thus requiring interface modification from encoder to pot. Unless in the very off-chance the WR-25 is already configured for pot. I’d be up for the challenge, but I wouldn’t have a clue where to start with that.
I knew TWI had ceased manufacturing going into this, but I love the consoles and every comment I’ve read has talked about their great accuracy and reliability, so I knew that’s what I wanted. I did email them immediately via their service email, but have had nothing back. It appears the site is merely ghosting on the internet at this point. The last copyright on it is 2013. So it’s entirely possible that there is no one left on staff anymore. It’s really dissapointing that the cheap stuff most likely killed them.
I remember as a kid all the radio, TV stations, and ski areas in our area still all had Heathkit ID-1590s installed on them, right through the mid-90s. No 4001s or 5001s though, surprisingly. I would love to have a Heathkit one day.
That is a huge help to have the version code information, as soon as I get my new unit I will report back on what the code reads.
I found all three manuals under the Downloads & Docs:
https://txwx.com/download-files/I’ve downloaded as much off the site as possible in the past few days.
Another question, can the RS-232 via a USB adaptor be used to output to a Meteohub/Meteobridge?
Absolutely I’m interested in genuine replacement parts for the Climatronics, that would be fantastic! Thank you! It was the cost from the company that was prohibitively expensive, so I was going to fabricate my own. I’m quite good at making things, but original parts certainly would be better.
That is good news about the unit, not what I was expecting! It should have read the indoor temp as well, the unit does still have the probe attached. Yes, that would be most helpful to know the part I would need to change out. I did follow the manual in trying to get the functions to respond, but nothing did. I attached photos of the inside and the back cover, the model listed on the back is the WRL-32. The year stamped on the RS-232 cable is 2013, so if that’s correct, this would be one of the last units made.
I took some more photos, when doing so I noticed that this little guy (circled) was not connected to both pins, but was turned sideways. Is this correct that it’s not used or is intended to be that way?
I enjoy a good project, I’m not the plug-n-play type, so although this is going to be a bit hard, I’ll still have fun getting it all working. I’ll be sure to keep posting here as I travel along.